Scott
W. TinkerBureau of Economic
Geology, The University of Texas at Austin

ABSTRACT

Throughout the 20th
century, natural gas was found in association with oil but commonly not
explored for as an independent source of energy. During the 21st century,
the United States will lead the world in transitioning away from coal
and oil into methane and hydrogen. Tight gas, shale gas, and coalbed methane
account for approximately 20% of U.S. consumption. Combine these existing
unconventional sources with deepwater, subsalt, deep gas (>15,000 ft),
brine gas, and gas hydrates, and by 2020 more than 50% of U.S. gas consumption,
representing a key component of total U.S. energy consumption, will come
from unconventional natural gas sources.

Much of the upstream
research and technology necessary to explore for and produce unconventional
natural gas, especially the advanced understanding of fractures and salt,
is in the early stages of understanding. Key goals include prediction,
modeling, and flow simulation. Such technologies as physical, numerical,
and geomechanical modeling algorithms and approaches, multicomponent seismic
data and seismic-based research, and direct-observation methods including
cathodoluminescent scanning electron microscopy will provide important
input to describe and predict (1) fracture aperture, orientation, spacing,
clustering, geometry, relation to lithology, and cementation and (2) salt
origin, mechanics, geometry, movement, and petrophysical variation. Methane
hydrates present several unique research challenges: (1) determining physical
properties-how they form, evolve, and break down, and what controls gas
concentration; (2) analyzing the effect of hydrates on sediment strength
and seafloor stability; and (3) characterizing and exploring for hydrates-through
remote sensing, improved simulation and modeling, and new production technology.

Bureau
of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin, University Station
Box X, Austin, Texas 78713;
e-mail: scott.tinker@beg.utexas.edu.